Anders, You Idiot
by Baleful Eyes
Summary: Anders has been running from things his entire life: the Circle, the Chantry, the Wardens, but no matter how fast or how far he runs, his past is bound to one day catch up with him. That day is today; a familiar woman arrives at his clinic, and she has some questions for Anders, starting with this: what ever happened to Justice?


"Anders..." The mage stopped dead in his tracks the second he heard the voice; he knew that voice. Slowly he turned and faced the person standing in front of him, who was accompanied by Aveline, while Hawke and the others looked on in confusion.

"Hey, love! Good to see you," Isabela crowed even though she could tell the woman was obviously not here for a friendly visit.

"Hello, Isabela," the woman said, her voice friendly for a moment, "you too."

"Not that I wanna break up this little love fest or anything, but... who the hell are you?" Varric asked.

"Jessmina," the woman answered, her voice stern again, "Jessmina Amell."

Isabela and Varric looked at Jessmina, then Hawke, then Anders, and over again.

"Well that's funny," Merrill said. "That's Hawke's mum's name."

Isabela rolled her eyes. "Daisy," Varric began, "that means they're probably related."

"Oh, I see," Merrill said.

"It's the Hero of Ferelden," Aveline explained with a sigh. This time Varric, Merrill, Isabela, and Hawke all looked at Anders, then Jessmina, then Anders, and Jessmina again.

Jessmina raised an eyebrow, either having been unaware of her relation to Hawke, or she simply found everyone there rather odd. Both scenarios were equally possible.

Jessmina shook her head, trying to get herself to refocus her attention on Anders, who she then turned back to face. "I heard you were here," she said.

Anders noticed Jessmina was wearing the same necklace that she always used to wear. She had once told him that she'd received it after she completed the Joining. She thought of it as a symbol that she was a Grey Warden.

"Still with the Wardens, I see," Anders said, trying to make the topic something other than himself.

"Still wearing feathered skirts, I see," Jessmina replied, causing suppressed laughter from Isabela and Varric, and even a slight grin from Aveline. If there was ever a time Anders had wanted to hit a girl it probably would have been then.

"Shouldn't you be in Denerim?" he pointed out.

"Shouldn't _you _be in Ferelden?" she shot back. "I was supposed to be in Denerim, but there's been a change of plans."

"Mind if I listen in on this conversation?" Varric asked, obviously not planning on giving the Warden a choice.

"Not at all," Jessmina said just as Anders was about to say, "Leave."

"What? Is it because he escaped from the Circle in Ferelden? Is that why you're here?" Isabela asked. "To take him back?"

"Yes, he did escape from the tower," Jessmina confirmed. "Six times."

"_Seven_," Anders corrected.

"Oh, _forgive_ me," Jessmina said sardonically. "That's not why I'm here. He was allowed to leave when I made him a Grey Warden."

"So you're here to bring him back to the Wardens?" Merrill guessed.

"No," Jessmina said.

"Well, then why the hell are you here?" Isabela exclaimed.

"Will you all just _shut up?_" Aveline shouted.

"Where's Fenris?" asked Merrill, prompting Aveline to smack her hand against her forehead in frustration. "What? What did I do?"

"Kitten, Fenris hates mages," Isabela explained. "Especially this one." She pointed to Anders.

"Oh," Merrill said, nodding.

"_Anyhow_," the hero said as she turned back to Anders, "I talked to Aura."

"Oh," Anders said, beginning to understand why the Warden had come.

"Anders," the Warden said as she stepped closer and closer to the mage. Each time she stepped towards him he stepped back until he was against the wall, unable to get away from her. Hawke wasn't exactly pleased with how close they were to one another. "Where. Is. Justice? He dropped dead in front of Aura."

"And so you came to find me?" Anders said, trying to sound offended.

"Yes, because aside from suddenly leaving the Wardens and the personality change, you don't seem suspicious at all."

"He left Kristoff's body. Justice most likely returned to the Fade, or was destroyed."

"And then you suddenly leave the Grey Wardens right after Justice disappears?" Jessmina queried. "Not to mention that when we arrived where you and the other Wardens were supposed to be it was a complete _bloodbath!  
><em>"Coincidence? I think not! Not to mention Justice always used to talk to you about fighting for mages."

Anders was silent. He didn't know how to tell her. She had no evidence at all, yet somehow she knew the answer. She just wanted to hear it for herself.

"Oh, Andraste's blood! Someone just tell me! Did you or did you not—"

"—I merged with Justice," Anders confessed.

"Maker!" the Hero shouted. "What were you thinking? Oh, that's right, you obviously weren't thinking.  
>"Merging with Justice... Maker, I can only <em>imagine<em> the dirty jokes Oghren would be making right now."

"Messere," Varric said, trying to smooth-talk information out of the Warden, "what do you mean personality change? Are you saying Blondie here used to actually _have_ a personality?"

"Oh, indeed," the Warden said, too angered to care about the fact that this matter didn't concern the dwarf, "and a damn big one, too! He was even more sarcastic than he is now, and had an ego the size of Antiva! Not to mention he was a huge—"

"—No need to talk about that!" Anders interrupted.

"So many words I can think of that could go after that," Isabela muttered to Varric and herself.

"I don't believe it," Varric said, referring to Anders' old self.

"So, did you just come back to ask questions and yell at me?" Anders asked.

"Oh, no," Jessmina replied sardonically. "I also planned on hitting you a few times.  
>"What in the Void did you think this would accomplish?<br>"'Oh, I'm going to merge myself with a spirit of Justice, obviously nothing can go wrong here!'"

"I had to do something about the way mages were being treated!" Anders argued.

"Excuses!" the Warden shouted. "I try to help the mages back in Ferelden, and I _have_ helped them. Believe it or not, things can _change_ over three years. I helped, but you never saw me going up to a spirit and saying, 'Hello, random spirit, can you merge with me because that's obviously going to solve _all of life's problems_'?"

"I think she's more sarcastic than you two," Merrill said to Varric and Isabela, causing them to look appalled by such a suggestion.

"And don't even _think_ about saying that I don't understand," the Warden said, sounding cold and serious. "I've been through just as much as you have and more.  
>"You should have known nothing good would come from this! Tell me, Anders, what happened? What happened to Justice?"<p>

"He," Anders began, "he became a spirit of Vengeance after merging with me."

"Of course he did. That would only happen to you," the Warden said, shaking her head in disappointment.

"How did you know that you needed to find me? How _did_ you find me?" Anders wondered.

"Um... well... you see," the Warden began, realizing that the focus was now shifting in on her. "I've got darkspawn to kill! You know, protect Ferelden and whatnot. I really should be going; the queen won't be happy if I'm gone too long... goodbye!"

"You used my phylactery!" Anders realized. "How could you? You sought help from the templars.  
>"You tried to help me find and destroy my phylactery, and then you went and <em>used<em> it! I trusted you! You said we were friends!" His eyes began to glow. "How could you?"

"Anders... why are your eyes glowing?" Jessmina asked, wondering if she could just casually walk away from this situation.

"_That_ is Justice," Hawke explained.

"Justice!" Jessmina crowed. "Hello, Justice... How are you doing? Long time no see..."

"Silence!" Justice demanded.

"Oh, great job, Anders! You've gone and made Justice all touchy!" the Warden said, clenching her hands into fists and pouting.

"All the templars and their allies shall die!" Anders/Justice grabbed his staff. Jessmina grabbed her staff. Everyone knew that if this continued then one, or perhaps even both of them, would die.

"Anders, stop!" Hawke pleaded.

"She must die!" Anders/Justice shouted.

"Maker, you should be _thanking_ me right now," Jessmina said with a sigh. "You know what? I'm out of here. Have fun with Justice... or Vengeance... or... whatever." She began to walk away, not that Anders/Justice/Vengeance(?) would let her, and then she turned back. "Catch," she said, throwing a small glass vial to Hawke.

"Anders, look," Hawke said after catching the vial. "Don't kill her. She helped you. Look."

Anders looked at the vial Hawke was holding; it contained blood. Anders somehow managed to regain control of himself.

"You," Anders trailed off.

"Uh-huh," Jessmina said, crossing her arms, a sly smirk on her face. "You might want to break that."

"But how?" Anders asked. "Only templars can use phylacteries to track down runaway Circle mages. How did you manage to...?"

"I have a templar waiting outside, but I've got years worth of experience when it comes to pick pocketing."

"Thank you," Anders said after a moment.

"No problem," the Warden replied with a smile. "I've enjoyed brassing off the templars _long_ before I met you. Still, it's sad things had to turn out like this, Anders. I still pray that you weren't responsible for the deaths of all those people." Jessmina smiled sadly before glancing at Hawke. "At least you finally found that pretty girl you wanted."

Hearing this, Hawke and Anders looked at one another, and then quickly turned away from each other, the two of them blushing furiously. Isabela burst out into a fit laughter, and Varric just barely managed to suppress his own laughter.

"All right then, Guard Captain," the Warden said with a sigh of content, turning to face Aveline. "I think I'd best be taking my leave."

"Yes, Messere," said Aveline, clearly not thrilled with the idea of going against the templar.

"Wait," Anders said, prompting the Warden to turn back around. "How did you know that I would be the one who knew what happened to Justice?"

"Because Nathaniel doesn't like dealing with spirits, Vellana had a giant chunk of _wall_ fall on her, and we couldn't even find the body, so Maker _knows_ where she is, I see Sigrun all the time, and Oghren's too drunk to think of anything to do with Justice," Jessmina said matter-of-factly.

"I see," Anders said.

"Well, I have to get going now," Jessmina said, turning around to leave, Aveline at her side. "There's a templar waiting outside, and somehow I'm going to have to explain to him how I 'accidentally' picked his pocket and dropped your phylactery, causing it to break. Hmm, that's not going to go over too well. Oh well, the Chantry won't miss _one_ templar... hopefully.  
>"Oh, and Anders, make sure you don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, like blow up the Chantry or something."<p> 


End file.
